McChrystal Must Go?

I suppose he will have to be sacked now. He is not irreplaceable. There
are more than a few fine generals in the Army, including Lt. General
David Rodriguez, a McChrystal deputy with vast experience in
Afghanistan. But it is a terrible setback, a diversion from the business
hand at a crucial moment in the conflict. And it is a real tragedy,
because Stanley McChrystal is precisely the sort of man who should be
leading American troops in battle.

If the facts are as they appear -- McChrystal and his associates
freely mocking their commander in chief and his possible successor (ie,
Biden) and the relevant State Department officials (Holbrooke and
Eikenberry) -- with no contention that the quotes were invented or
misconstrued, then Obama owes it to past and future presidents to draw
the line and say: this is not tolerable. You must go. McChrystal's team
was inexplicably
reckless in talking before a reporter this way, but that's a
separate question. The fact is -- or appears to be -- that they did it.

Yesterday,
Gates passed over Gen. James Mattis for Marine Corps commandant. If
Obama wants to cashier McChrystal but not overhaul the entire strategy,
Mattis is an option. Whether he’d do it is another thing, since he’s
the outgoing commander of U.S. Joint Forces Command, so taking over ISAF
will technically be a step down. But Mattis will otherwise retire from
the Marines, so maybe he wouldn’t see it that way.

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